Israeli startup Milestone has successfully raised $10 million in a funding round aimed at bolstering its innovative platform that correlates the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) tools with engineering metrics. The company has a distinctive focus on maximizing engineering productivity. It’s making a particular play for the enterprise clients by using its deeper knowledge of code quality and project management.
Milestone’s platform is built on four foundational pillars: codebases, project management platforms, team structure, and generative code tools. This architecture allows organizations to measure the effectiveness of AI implementations in real-time, enabling managers to assess feature delivery speed and determine the impact of AI-generated code on recent bugs. The startup’s founders like to boast that their tech is a “genAI data lake.” Most importantly, it seeks to provide actionable intelligence on what’s currently operating when AI intersects with, and augments engineering workflows.
The new startup’s long-term plan is evident. Milestone goes all-in on enterprise customers from Day One. The management team made a deliberate choice to decline prospective customers that did not meet their criteria for size and complexity. Their product roadmap for the foreseeable future continues to emphasize robust functionality for enterprise-level needs. It’s designed to bring in the best in class features and credentials that big enterprises need.
Milestone’s co-founder Liad Elidan made a keen observation that stuck with me. He added that no customer of theirs ever said GenAI doesn’t help us enough, so we’re canceling the license. In reality, it’s the complete reverse! They are eager to experiment with more Gen AI tools. But overall, Milestone’s platform has been very well received by users. This practical pursuit of AI-driven advantages is further stimulated by a broad and strong sentiment against the current crisis.
Milestone’s guidelines provide a helpful starting point that will better arm managers to make smart decisions on what AI tools to implement. The platform has provided some powerful new insights into how AI is impacting code quality and project outcomes. This equips engineering leaders to truly enhance their teams’ performance. Being able to flag if a new bug was introduced from AI-generated code increases the utility of the platform. This powerful capability enables organizations to meet the new pressures and complexities of today’s software development.
The founding team of Milestone features Elidan alongside Professor Stephen Barrett, whose academic background enriches the company’s understanding of the transformative waves affecting its customers. Barrett reflected, “I think in some sense, AI is kind of filling out the team, and engineers are starting to become managers. This viewpoint highlights the fact that AI isn’t just a complementary tool, but an ongoing disruptor that is reshaping responsibilities within engineering teams.
Interestingly, Elidan and Barrett had an atypical setup in the early days of Milestone. Despite working closely together over several years, they never met face-to-face until preparing to launch a fundraising campaign for their new startup. This reality is a testament to the evolving nature of collaborative, remote work today. Innovation has recently been all the rage in the tech world.
After a hugely successful funding round, Milestone is looking to deepen its expertise and further develop its proprietary platform. The company is well-positioned to address the growing appetite for safe and effective AI-driven solutions. Together, these innovations will greatly improve engineering efficiency and provide improved outcomes for local enterprise clients.